Brooklyn Chamber and National Grid Celebrate Earth Day

Panel Discusses Energy Programs, Incentives

Appropriately on Earth Day, businessmen and women converged on National Grid’s Brooklyn headquarters for a panel entitled “Building Sustainable Businesses... Green Ways to Save.”

Presented as the inaugural event of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Real Estate and Development (RED) Committee, National Grid sponsored the panel that was a discussion about making green changes to save money.

“It’s really inspiring to see businesses like National Grid lead the way to make sure that we are green and we are efficient and that at the end of the day we are preserving the planet for our children, our grandchildren and our great-great-great-grandchildren,” said Carl Hum, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “Whether you’re a small business, a retailer, a homeowner or a developer, there is something here for everybody.”

Moderated by Amanda Daly — the former director of education at the now-closed Center for the Urban Environment and a current adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College — the panel consisted of three presentations by energy experts in New York City.

Clararose Voigt, assistant project manager of energy programs at NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority), spoke about energy-efficiency project incentives given out by the corporation.

“The general program structure of NYSERDA follows through the initial identification stage, where we go into your facility to evaluate and identify what energy-efficiency measure we can undertake there, what needs to be improved,” Voigt explained. NYSERDA “then follows through onto the installation phase, where we provide work incentives to actually implement those measures that we identify.”

Building Incentives

For commercial and industrial programs, the incentives can be given to both existing buildings and construction projects. The process is split for existing buildings, which get incentives for energy studies through the FlexTech/Technical Assistance Program (for medium/large customers) or the Audit Program (for small customers), then get incentives for installation through the Existing Facilities Program. For construction projects, the New Construction Program provides incentives from program identification through installation.

Voigt said the Existing Facilities Program is then split into two categories: pre-qualified incentives for spot retrofits and small projects, and performance-based incentives for large-scale projects. Projects can receive up to $30,000 with pre-qualified incentives, and for performance-based incentives, the amount is based on the energy savings or demand response. For information, visit www.nyserda.org.

Julie Hughes, assistant vice president of energy efficiency at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), focused her presentation on steps the city government is taking to reduce the city’s energy consumption. This is part of a 10-year plan initiated by Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC program.

PlaNYC’s goal is to reduce emissions in New York City by 30 percent by the year 2030. This will be done by investing in clean power, establishing more efficient transportation, and, most importantly, making the city’s existing buildings more energy efficient.

“What we really need to address is the building stock that’s already here,” said Hughes. By 2030, she said, an estimated 85 percent of emissions will be generated from buildings we already have as opposed to new construction.

Hughes went on to explain that the capital needed to complete this plan is higher than the city’s available funds, so part of the strategy is to invest in projects that will save the most energy and have the quickest payback period.

Reaching Out to Broadway

The mayor has also reached out to universities, hospitals and Broadway — because of its use of so much electricity — to follow the City’s lead. Fifteen universities have already signed on, the EDC is currently in talks with hospitals, and Broadway has “taken the program and run with it,” Hughes said.

James Madsen, manager of energy efficiency at National Grid, spoke about the company’s gas and electric efficiency programs and incentives.

“In 2008 we had 53,000 participants in our gas programs that resulted in 12.2 million therms saved, equivalent to 71,000 tons of CO2 avoided. Our electric programs have even more participants: 372,000, with 420,000 megawatt hours of electricity saved, and 236,000 tons of CO2 avoided,” Madsen said. “Taken together, that’s about the equivalent of keeping 50,000 cars off the road for a year.”

Madsen urged everyone present to research high-efficiency products in case their older equipment needs to be replaced immediately. Most of the time, he said, repairpersons will offer replacements that only have standard efficiency.

Incentives from National Grid can be applied to many different products or improvements, ranging from standard heating equipment to kitchen equipment to solar water heaters. The energy company will also evaluate non-standard products for incentives. For more information, visit www.nationalgridus.com or www.thinksmartthinkgreen.com.

An example Madsen gave of a Brooklyn facility to take advantage of incentives was the Aviator Sports Complex in Floyd Bennett Field. For installing radiant heating, high-efficiency water heating and a high-efficiency boiler, among other things, the complex received $100,000 in incentives.

Joe Rende, National Grid vice president of energy services solutions, said, “By working together, with that power of action, we can make a big impact in tackling climate change, starting right here today on Earth Day.”

“Its no secret that I think Brooklyn is the center of the world. So when we celebrate Earth Day, I can’t help but think we’re celebrating ‘Brooklyn Day’ as well,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz. “Brooklyn is a green jewel for the rest of the country to emulate.”

Photo at top is, from left to right: Panel Moderator Amanda Daly, the former director of education at the now-closed Center for the Urban Environment and a current adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College; Presenter Julie Hughes, assistant vice president of energy efficiency at EDC; Presenter Clararose Voigt, assistant project manager of energy programs at NYSERDA; Joe Rende, National Grid vice president of energy services solutions; Rick Russo, VP of member services at the Chamber; Lori Raphael, director of real estate and development at the Chamber; and Presenter James Madsen, manager of energy efficiency at National Grid.

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